The reports out there are stating that the Wizards are set to offer Gilbert Arenas a big deal a deal supposedly for six years and over $100 million. No one is quite sure if it is a max deal yet. In typical Gilbert style, he leaves for China and won’t come back for two weeks so Washington is looking to get this done.
The good news: they re-signed Antawn Jamison. Gilbert said he wasn’t coming back unless they brought Jamison back. So that’s working in their favor.
The bad news: they are about to overpay Agent Zero.
This isn’t a post to say [...]

DeSagana Diop and Beno Udrih were 4 and 5 on the unrestricted free agents list.
*shudder*
Looks like a quiet summer. Color me not intrigued by the saga of Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Emeka Okafor and Andre Igoudala after they turned down contracts this summer.
UPDATE: Just make things more un-interesting the Wiz are looking to lock up both Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas. So sorry Clipper fans.

A little bit of Team USA news as it turns out that Dwight Howard suffered a stress fracture in his sternum during the playoffs. Because everyone loves a good list, here are my thoughts in order of appearance.

Ouch.
This is the kind of injury that is going to make someone go ‘man I wish we had Tyson Chandler’ during the Olympics.
If Dwight is going to be all healed up by the Olympics, why did they release the info in the first place? International teams feed on this kind of stuff. They’re like the guy at a pickup game who always sticks [...]

I’ve kind of been lying back soaking in all of the draft. I’m enjoying the praise we receive nationally, it sure is a change of pace. And I like how because KP is so good at making moves we are becoming villains in the eyes of some people. I know for a fact if we ever win a championship we are going to be hated because we have enough bandwagon type fans to fill two or three arenas.
(I mean look at the turn around we had with KP. He was not liked when he was named coach as replacement for [...]

In case you didn’t see it yet, here is Jerryd Bayless‘ video breakdown from Jay Bilas. You already know the kid’s got talent, so the buzz words you should take note of are “work ethic.” That’s what we like to hear in Portland.

I want to make a special mention of Jonathan Givony’s Draft Report Card over at Draftexpress. Unlike many of the larger media outlets, Givony does an excellent job evaluating the value each team got with the assets they had going into the draft, meaning his grades reflect draft position, pre-draft trades and how the players will fit into [...]

Now that we’ve all had time to recover from yesterday’s mania, it’s time to go through everybody’s reactions to what should be Kevin Pritchard’s last hurrah in the NBA Lottery.
You can see all that we came up with in the post below, and while all the 2nd Round picks were fine and dandy (typical KP maneuvering) Bayless was the real prize. A quick analysis on him shows just how well he’s going to fit as a combo guard next to Brandon Roy. He doesn’t need to be a “pure point” as was the biggest knock on him since Roy handles [...]

Don’t want to step on SJ’s killer diary below, so I’ll keep this brief and simple. This is what the Blazers did in the 2008 Draft, and it looks good. And here’s a quick link to all of the night’s trades. We’ll have thoughts tomorrow.
Received:Jerryd BaylessIke DioguNicolas Batum‘09 2nd Rounder from the ClippersThree future 2nd Rounders from the Bulls (ESPN now has it at two)
Lost:Jarret JackJosh McRobertsBrandon Rush
Picks Traded:Brandon Rush (13)Darrel Arthur (27)Joey Dorsey (33)Omer Asik (36)Mike Taylor (55)

Welcome to the second annual RCP live coverage of the NBA Draft. I know, the second one. Feels all super official. I hate watching the Draft preview show because it’s just added hype but I have no choice.
4:05 PT: The ‘whose going first’ drama dies. Andy Katz reports that the Bulls are going to pick Derrick Rose. Thanks for that Andy. What is this the NFL Draft now? Sheesh.
4:07 PT: I’m very curious to how smart Jay Bilas is going to sound this year without Stephen A’s stupidity around. Whoops I forgot Mark Jackson is still on the job.
4:09 PT: [...]

The Bucks and Nets have agreed in principle to a deal sending Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee and Yi Jianlin to New Jersey. There are other players involved (I heard Bobby Simmons) to make contracts work, the Yi and Jefferson are the center of the trade.
Everyone remembers Yi and his people (ie. China) complaining about him going to a small market, well now they get Jersey, and eventually Brooklyn. The Nets better be sure about him.
Meanwhile, KP already said Jefferson would be too expensive for the Blazers to get.
UPDATE: It is Simmons in the deal, who has $20.5 million left on [...]

No link yet, but just reported on ESPN Radio, the Clippers will trade the #7 and a future first rounder to the Sonics for the #4 pick in this year’s draft.
Since it seems Minnesota might take Love at #3, the Clippers could get the man they covet, O.J. Mayo. Meanwhile, Seattle could still get a top prospect at #7 (Brook Lopez, if they so choose) and what is almost guaranteed to be a lottery pick if that Clippers’ future No. 1 is not top-three protected. It IS a protected pick though, so we’ll see what the extent of that is. [...]